The Working File

My friend Joe recently wrote about a way to view the movies and other media you have stored on your computer on your TV. So now I feel I should finally get around to writing at least a brief Apple TV review.

The first thing to note is that this is called “Apple TV,” instead of “Mac TV,” for a very good reason. It works equally well, in my experience, with Windows and Mac computers. You do have to have iTunes, installed, however, as there is pretty much no way to get media from the computer to the Apple TV otherwise. that is a major drawback for some people, but not for me.

The second thing to note is that this item acts much more like an appliance than a computer. Setup is ridiculously simple, including the connection to a security-code protected WiFi network. Yes, there is, of course, an ethernet and port in the back, but this thing is really, really, simple to use. As many others have commented, it is much like an iPod. I also use the HDMI connector to attach it to the TV.

Once set up, you can watch, or listen to, anything that you have in iTunes on your TV. It also will sync your photos from iPhoto on a Mac (and I confess I haven’t checked how it grabs photos from a PC). You can view these materials both after they download onto the Apple TV, or streaming from the computer. I have found that this works perfectly, even for video. You can watch both content that you create, such a shome movies, as well as TV shows, podcasts, and movies that you get from iTunes.

There is also a fairly recent new feature of movie rentals, but I haven’t tried it. You can only watch a movie within 24 hours of when you first start watching it. Sorry, but with our lives, my wife and I rarely finish a movie the same night we start it. This alone is pretty much a deal killer. Plus, the cost is $3.99 for standard def and $4.99 for Hi-def. Since we already have a Netflix subscription, we really don’t see the value here. Sure, it might very occasionally happen that we desperately want to see a movie right now, but not really.

There are a handful of other features. You can watch YouTube videos, get direct access to podcasts from your TV, and look at photos posted on Flickr. These have limited utility for my family, but might be worthwhile for you.

Bottom line, I ma very pleased with the purchase, and find it a great and simple way to watch home movies. I don’t ever anticipate making regular DVDs of home movies again.